Most readers will be reviewing this article long after Bernard
Berrian's Chicago Bears fate has been decided. As of this writing, the Bears
have just decided not to place the franchise tag on the free agent. Never fear,
Bear fans. It is the opinion of this writer, and hopefully this history will
show, that only once has a receiver proven pivotal to a Bears Super Bowl. And
never has the absence of a receiver directly caused the Bears to miss one.

In 2008, the Chicago Bears will play in their 89th season of
professional football. Most would think that the high-powered NFL passing game
came of age in the 1970's. Yet one might successfully argue that the Bears
didn't find one until the middle of the 1990's.

Certainly the Bears had their share of star receivers early in
their history. The first Bear receiver to be seen as a star leaguewide may have
been Harlon Hill, drafted in 1954 from a tiny teacher's college in Alabama.
That's not to take anything away from earlier stars such as Jim Keane (1946-51)
or Ken Kavanaugh (1940-41; 45-50), but Hill still ranks second on the Bears'
all-time receiving chart with 4,616 yards and 40 touchdowns.

Prior to Hill, recently deceased Jim Dooley usually led
Chicago in receiving.

In the 1960's, it was all Johnny Morris, who started out as a
running back but moved to receiver. From 1958-1967, Morris amassed 5,059 yards
receiving and 31 touchdowns. He remains the Bears' all-time leading receiver.
And once again, here's where the Bears again look foolish to the rest of the
league, as they do at the quarterback positon. Morris played 10 seasons,
totaling 356 catches, 5,059 yards and 31 touchdowns. By comparison the Packer's
all-time leading receiver, Sterling Sharpe, caught 595 balls for 8,134 yards in
just 7 seasons.

The early 1970's would provide the Bears with their first
1,000+ yard receiver in five years: Dick Gordon in 1970. But the drought until
the next 1,000+ yard receiver would be much greater than that. The early 70's
got so bad that in 1972, Earl Thomas led the team with just 20 receptions.
1973's leader, Carl Garrett, caught just 23. In the later 1970's the Bears
found a speedster in James Scott, traded for Dallas wideout Golden Richards,
but mainly fielded simply servicable players such as Brian Baschnagel and Steve
Schubert.

The 1980's started out much the same. James Scott came back
after signing a more lucrative contract in Canada (imagine that now?!), and the
Bears drafted Rickey Watts and the unspectacular but gritty Ken Margerum. But
by 1983, enough other pieces were in place (Walter
Payton, a young and talented defense and offensive line) that Chicago
decided it finally needed a gamebreaker. So with the 18th pick in the first
round that year, the Bears selected Tennessee burner Willie Gault. And somehow,
the Bears found a complimentary receiver to pair with Gault in Dennis McKinnon
as a free agent.

Gault never made the Pro Bowl or amassed 1,000+ yards in a
season, because he didn't have to. But offensively, the Bears may not have
dominated in 1985 without Gault. Sure, the defense is why the Bears won
Super Bowl 20, but the NFL's highest scoring offense that season would
have been much more restricted without Gault pulling safeties away from the
line, and Walter Payton.

In the writer's opinion, Willie Gault is the only receiver in
the modern era of the Chicago Bears that directly contributed to a Super Bowl
victory (i.e. the Bears may not have won a championship without him).

Gault and McKinnon continued to play at a high level in
1986-87, but no championships were in order due to injuries at other key
positions, most notably quarterback. Following the 1987 season, before the era
of free agency in the NFL, Gault demanded a trade, most preferrably to Los
Angeles where he could concentrate on a second career-acting. So it was, and
the Bears traded Gault to the Raiders for first and third-round picks in 1989
and 1990, respectively. These picks turned into corner Donnell Woolford and
quarterback P.T. Willis. In 1988, to try to replace Gault, the Bears selected
LSU's Wendell Davis, but Davis was more the posession type.

It would be reaching to state that Gault's departure directly
led to the inability to reach another Super Bowl in that era, but there were
too many other injuries and issues for that coorelation to be reached directly.
The Bears converted running back Dennis Gentry and paired him with Ron Morris,
McKinnion and Davis, but the spark in the receiving corps was gone.

So in 1991, the Bears selected a "Willie Gault on a budget" in
Anthony Morgan from Gault's alma mater, but Morgan was oft-injured and
ineffective. Morgan was so much not the answer that he was supplanted in 1991
by the surprising Tom Waddle, who
after being cut multiple times became a Bear legend in just four seasons.

With Dave Wannstedt's arrival in 1993, he brought with him a
philosophy to increase team speed at all costs. With the seventh overall pick
that year, Wannstedt selected Curtis Conway, a speedster with little college
receiving experience. Once Pittsburgh sent Jeff Graham to the Bears for a
fifth-round pick in 1994, the Bears would finally enter the 1970's as far as
their passing game. In 1995, Graham and Conway both caught balls for over 1,000
yards, the first time a Bear had done so since Gordon. But one thing to note:
neither Conway nor Graham gave the Bears a Super Bowl.

But alas, Graham left via free agency, Conway became injured
with increased frequency, and the Bears put together their two worst seasons
since the 1970's in 1997 and '98. Actually the Bears may have had a playmaker
in the mold of Tom Waddle, Kevin Curtis or Wes Welker in '97, but let him go.
That season, journeyman Ricky Proehl led Chicago with 58 receptions, 753 yards
and 7 touchdowns while playing with awful quarterbacks. But it wasn't enough to
get Proehl an extension to the one-year deal he signed. Proehl would move on to
St. Louis, where he was a vital if underappreciated cog in the "greatest show
on turf."

In 1999, the arrival of Dick Jauron and receiver-happy
offensive coordinator Gary Crowton signaled a need for an influx of talented
receivers. That year the Bears selected three of them, including Dwayne Bates
and Marty Booker. These rookies teamed with holdovers Conway, Bobby Engram and
1997 pick Marcus Robinson to form a potent group. Robinson broke out to set the
Bears' all-time single-season yardage record with 1,400 and 9 touchdowns.

Conway left as a free agent and the Bears drafted Georgia Tech's Dez White to
replace him. In 2001, the Bears selected Michigan's David Terrell with their
high first-round pick (eighth), mainly because he slipped to them.

In 2000, the emerging Robinson, who looked like the next Randy
Moss, suffered the first in a string of injuries. In the fifth game of
2001, Robinson tore an ACL, virtually ending his promise with the Bears.
But the end of the brief Robinson era ushered in the brief Marty Booker era.

Though Gary Crowton's high-powered offense was out, replaced
in comparison by John Shoop's Edsel of a system, Booker caught 100 passes for
1,071 yards and 8 touchdowns in 2001, and followed up in 2002 with a 97/1,189/6
season.

In 2002, Booker became the first Chicago Bears receiver to
appear in a Pro Bowl since Gordon in 1970, and the only offensive skill
position player going back to Neal Anderson in 1991 to make it to Hawaii.

2003 brought fifth-rounders Justin Gage and Bobby Wade in the
draft. Booker's performance tailed off in 2003, and with a large contract
he had signed in '02, he was packaged with a draft pick to land defensive end
Adawale Ogunelye in a trade with the Miami Dolphins prior to the 2004 regular
season.

Still searching for answers and not finding them anywhere, the
Bears selected Bernard Berrian in the third round of the 2004 draft, and in
2005 drafted the unknown Mark Bradley with a very high second-round pick. They
also signed veteran Muhsin Muhammad.

Berrian had a breakout season in 2006, catching 51 passes for
775 yards and 6 touchdowns from Rex Grossman. 2007 was a somewhat disappointing
follow up, marred by several key drops, but he bested the previous year's stats
with 70 catches for 948 yards. He scored 5 touchdowns.

Berrian fulfilled his four-year rookie contract, and will
enter free agency on February 29th. Muhammad, with his $1.5 million salary, was
released.

Debate rages as to how much effort the Bears should take to
re-sign Berrian. Certainly Berrian's departure would be a significant loss to a
rebuilding Bears offense. Berrian's performance helped the Bears win several
key games in 2006, including the divisional playoff against the Seahawks. But
as history has shown, one receiver rarely puts a team over the top. Should the
bidding reach $5 million and up per season for Berrian in a shallow receiver
market, how could a rebuilding Bears team with multiple needs spend the money
on a receiver? History shows the answer is: they couldn't.